True Believer
Well I’ve never been a true believer
And I’ve never trusted one I’ve met
It’s the timbre and shake
Always strikes me as fake
And it makes it so hard for me to buy it
But that hasn’t stopped me from hoping
That it might just find me yet
And the envy I feel
From my head to my heels
Keeps me wheeling around trying to see it
You can ask me all your questions
And I’ll do my best to answer them
But you’ll have to ask again in a year or two ten
My mother says that we should pray more
But I’ve never managed to work it out
It’s just me on the line
The only voice there is mine
And I find I’ve got nothing to talk about
But a quiet room has always unnerved me
It’s my instinct to fill the air
With a word or a hum
Or a song or a strum
Always something that sounds like a prayer
So I’ll keep asking all my questions
And I’ll tune my ears to listen in
But I’ll have to ask again in a year or two or ten
Maybe I’ve got it all backwards
Gone again and put the cart before the horse
And belief’s not the end
It’s just a place to begin
And it bends and it breathes
And it blows like the leaves
And the harder I squeeze
The faster it leaves
And the thing that I need
Is to open my hands and receive it
Of course
Forgiveness
At night I dream of reconciliation
That all will be resolved in the morning light
But I wake up and my jaw is tight
From holding on
To all the times that I’ve been wronged
It’s a long road to forgiveness
It’s a long road to forgiveness
All this screaming about our damnnation
Of who will get a pass and who will eat fire
When the sun sets I am tired
Of the whole affair
And for too weary to care
It’s a long road to forgiveness
It’s a long road to forgiveness
My friend the scientist
Says every blooming flower is an apocalypse
It’s just a play on words
A little bit of trivia that he once heard
But I like the line
That at the end of time
There’s nothing to be afraid of
If we find ourselves in glorification
Halos on our heads and a song in our hearts
I hope we all sing all the parts
And the smell of spring
Hovers over everything
Make
You can make up your mind
At least for a time
And if it makes you feel strange
You can make a change
If you make up your bed to lie in
And it don’t feel right
You can get up again
And you can make do
If you have to
You can make do
If you make a mess of things
You can make peace if you’re willing
Because making amends
Sure beats making new friends
You can make hay
While the sun shines
And if it rains
You’ll be just fine
You can make do
If you have to
You can make do
It seems to me no one really knows why we’re here
And I’ve got more questions than answers year after year
And if it’s the case
That meaning is ours to make
I wanna make it with you
I wanna make it with you
I wanna make it with you
I wanna make it with you
We can make believe
That time is not a thief
And if you just make me laugh
We can hold the darkness back
I’ll plant an orchard of lemon trees
And we’ll lemonade
And we’ll make it real sweet
And we can make do
Like we want to
We can make do
Coins in the Fountain
I don’t know about you
But I’m slowing down these days
I feel my age
I do, I do
I don’t know about you
Oh how time flies by
At a pace that seems absurd
The moments blur
Oh my, oh how
The time flies by
And I usually spend my time
Like nickels and dime
Pockets of changed
To be stacked and arranged
As if it’s all mine
As if time were a thing to be saved
For better days
When both of us know
That’s simply not so
And time doesn’t work that way
I’m happy we’ve had the time that we’ve had
I’m happy we’ve had the time that we’ve had
I’m happy we’ve had the time that we’ve had
(My oh my how time flies by)
I’m happy we’ve had the time that we’ve had
(My oh my how time flies by)
I’m happy we’ve had the time that we’ve had
(My oh my how time flies by)
I’ll be happier still to spend what is left throwing coins in a fountain with you
A Small, Good Thing
It's a small, good thing to pour the coffee
It’s a small, good thing to share the crust
It’s a small, good thing to sit together
And remember we are dust
I didn’t hear you when you called me
And when I did I couldn’t speak
Oh how the anger overwhelmed me
How the shock had left me weak
One minute he was with us
The next moment he was gone
There is no break from all this suffering
Our hearts keep beating on
It's a small, good thing to pour the coffee
It’s a small, good thing to share the crust
It’s a small, good thing to sit together
And remember we are dust
And if our time is just an instant
And what we know is just a speck
I’d like to spend it with the people
Who know the taste of death
Because grief doesn’t leave you empty
Oh no if fills you to the brim
The body is a channel
For a pain that never ends
It's a small, good thing to pour the coffee
It’s a small, good thing to share the crust
It’s a small, good thing to sit together
And remember we are dust
There is a tree outside my window
That burns like fire in the fall
A brilliant blaze to match the sunset
A spark to torch it all
But we are rooted in the soil
We are planted in the dirt
And from the fields our sorrow flowers
And illuminates the earth
It's a small, good thing to pour the coffee
It’s a small, good thing to share the crust
It’s a small, good thing to sit together
And remember we are dust
The Secret to Being Light
It there anger in your heart?
There is in mine
All the time
All the time
And it’s tearing me apart
From seam to seam
And it makes me mean
It makes me mean
Are you weary to the bone
From all your care?
The load you bear
The load you bear
And they say to set it down
But you can’t just yet
No you won’t forget
No you won’t forget
Does it hurt to be alive?
Sometimes it does
Just because
Just because
But tangled in that pain
You might be surprised
By the joy you find
By the joy you find
I dreamt that we were big black birds
Too heavy to fly
And it didn’t take too much work
To knock us from the sky
And when we crashed
We turned to ash
And the rain swept us away
But when the sun came up
It lifted us high up in the sky
And whispered:
The secret to being light
Is letting go
Uncanny Valley
It’s an uncanny valley that we’re forging through
And I don’t know what to do
Nothing looks quite like it seems
Dreams within dreams within dreams
And the question I find myself asking most
Is if there is a ghost
Deep in the mind of the machine
Just what does that say about me
And you
Irreducible you
Not the sum of your parts
But an infinitely chambered heart
Lately my mind is a briar patch
A thicket catching trash
All day I work to clear the land
And dawn will find me with my rake in hand
And the trouble with change is the pace it comes
Just incremental crumbs
And no one can see the whole view
And just how it’s changing you
And me
Irreducible me
Not a map of a mind
Just a simple being in time
And the truth is hard to tell
And it’s hard to tell what’s true
But I think it bears repeating
When it comes to me and you
Dear God, it’s complicated
Fortune Cookies
Seems like all the news is bad news lately
All just handbaskets and hell
And how to pull the yoke up?
Who can tell
And the universe expands with every moment, don’t it
At least that’s what I’m told
And so I’m praying
The center just might hold
And in the meantime
In all this wild weather
Let’s start with sticking together
It’s the best that we can do
You can hold on to me
And I’ll hold on to you
Seems like all my fortune cookies lately
Are just shelling out advice
And if I’m being honest?
It’s kinda nice
Because the last thing that I need is a prediction really
Of what the future just might hold
I’ve got enough worry
My hands are full
And in the meantime
In all this wild weather
Let’s start with sticking together
It’s the best that we can do
You can hold on to me
And I’ll hold on to you
If the world is always ending
Then I’ll try to start attending
To all the little things
All of my little loves
All of the little that I know of
Anything at all
And in the meantime
In all this wild weather
Let’s start with sticking together
It’s the best that we can do
You can hold on to me
And I’ll hold on to you
Human Condition
I called the doctor and the doctor said
Part of your heart appears to be dead
I can’t say I was too surprised
Felt kinda funny all of my life
I asked him just what do I take
For all of this pain and all of this ache?
And he said, “Son, I’m just a simple physician
There’s nothing to be done about the human condition”
Got to feeling desperate so I called a priest
A real Hail Mary, to say the least
He said he wasn’t at all surprised
The specter of death can make a man wise
As for just what he would say
His only advice was to kneel and pray
He said, “Son, it’s a presupposition
There’s nothing to be done about the human condition”
We’re barely hanging on down here
All of us anxious and riddled with fear
And it seems to get worse year after year
We’re barely hanging on down here
I caught my neighbor out in his yard
Thought I should tell him about life being hard
But the sun was high and the sky was clear
And the weather was warm for that time of year
So we sat together, enjoyed the breeze
Marveling at the brightness of leaves
And his smile served as proper admonition
There’s nothing that beats the human condition
Planned Obsolescence
There’s nothing that reminds me
Of my planned obsolescence
Like the high beam fluorescence
Of a dental chair
All those chisel and drill bits
Crammed into my mouth
For the teeth that will fall out
From wear and tear
Eventually
Just like you and me
And the rest of us
Ashes to ashes and dust to dust
Ashes to ashes and dust to dust
So all mice and men then
Making up their grand plans
Better sure make them deadpan
And hold for laugh
Because any way you wager
The only sure bet is sunset
We’re all bound for death yet
Like the tender grass
Eventually
All of you and all of me
And the rest of us
Ashes to ashes and dust to dust
Ashes to ashes and dust to dust
How then should we live
If we’re all bound to sleep tight
In the blackest of midnights
Beneath the ground
We can turn our attention
To the things that we love most
And we can pray that we get ghosts
And stick around
Eventually
One for you and one for me
And the rest of us
Ashes to ashes and dust to dust
Ashes to ashes and dust to dust
What Holds Us Together
Tendons and sinews
Ligaments and tissue
These are the things that hold us all together
Broke bones and heart break
Furrowed brows and bellyaches
These are the things that threaten to tear us to shreds
And it’s no wonder
Given and over and under
We always come up short
If we’re crumbling to pieces
Who knows what the use is
Of trying to keep it from coming apart
For you and for me
It’s a wonder that we see
Anything past the planks in our eyes
And yet we still manage
To dole out our damage
With knives to the back and shivs to the side
And it’s no question
We’ll never learn our lesson
By trading blow for blow
If it’s an eye for an eye
And a tooth for a tooth
Then we’re in for a terrible show
And if we’re so fragile
Can we learn how to handle
The power allotted to us?
Can we heal where it hurts
And forgive when it’s worst
And remember that we’re all we’ve got
And remember that we’re all we’ve got
